[356] I examined at the British Museum the originals of the glazed bricks reproduced by Layard in his first series of Monuments, some of which we have copied in our plates xiii. and xiv. The outlines of the ornament are now hardly more than distinguishable, while the colour is no more than a pale reflection.
[357] Loftus believes that the external faces of Assyrian walls were not, as a rule, cased in enamelled bricks. He disengaged three sides of the northern palace at Kouyundjik without finding any traces of polychromatic decoration. (Travels and Researches, p. 397. note.)
[358] Καθ' ὁν εν ωμαις ετι ταις πλινθοις διετετυπωτο θηρια, παντοδαπα τη των χρωματων φιλοτεχνια την αληθειαν απομιμουμενα (Diodorus, ii. 8, 4.) Diodorus expressly declares that he borrows this description from Ctesias (ὡς Κτησιας φησιν), ibid. 5.
[359] Ενησαν δε εν τοις πυργοις και τειχεσι ζοα παντοδαπα φιλοτεχνως τοις τε χρομασι και τοις των τυρων απομασι κατασκευασμενα. (Diodorus, ii. 8, 6.)
[360] Παντοιων θηριων ... ὡν ησαν τα μεγεθη πλειον η πηχων τετταρων. Four cubits was equal to about five feet eight inches. At Khorsabad the tallest of the genii on the coloured tiles at the door are only 32 inches high; others are not more than two feet.
[361] Place, Ninive, vol. iii. plates 24 and 31.
[362] "The painting," says M. Oppert, "was applied to a kind of roughly blocked-out relief." (Expédition scientifique, vol. i. p. 144.)
[363] De Longperier, Musée Napoléon III., plate iv.
[364] This palace was then inhabited for a part of the year by the Achemenid princes, of whom Ctesias was both the guest and physician.
[365] Oppert, Expédition scientifique, vol. i. pp. 143, 144.